Why Catholics Don't Celebrate Mary's Birthday: 5 unique ways you can

On September 8, the Catholic world once again celebrates the solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Nativity. It is otherwise called Our Lady's birthday. Oddly, most Catholics don’t really celebrate it.

To neglect someone’s birthday is to say we don’t love them. God forbid we would forget to celebrate our own mother’s birthday. Yet, this is what many Catholics do with Jesus’ mother.

There are reasons why most Catholics don’t celebrate Our Lady’s birthday.

Here are the main ones.

• Catholics don’t celebrate the birthdays of saints.

Oddly, there are only three birthdays solemnized by the Church, that of Our Lord Jesus Christ, of St. John the Baptist and of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The feastday of saints is actually the day they entered into paradise or a significant date in their holy lives.

We celebrate Christmas, the birthday of Jesus, well enough. Why not celebrate Mary’s birthday? One thing is for sure, Jesus, as the perfect son, does not neglect to celebrate her birthday in Heaven.

• Many other feast days

There are so many feast days of Our Lady like: the Immaculate Conception (December 8), the Annunciation (March 25), the Assumption (August 15), the month of Mary (May), the month of the Holy Rosary (October), Our Lady of Lourdes (February 11), Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12). All her feast days are special, but shouldn’t her birthday hold a special significance for us in the same way that Christmas does?

• No Religious Orders

There are many great orders dedicated to promoting different feast days like the the Religious of the Assumption or the Order of the Immaculate Conception. There is one established in Mexico in 1944 called the Missionaries of the Nativity of Mary dedicated to Our Lady’s nativity but it is not very well known.

• Not much is known of Mary’s birth

Very little is known of Mary’s birth. The oldest written accounts are controversial, but oral tradition has passed to us some details. In a famous medieval book called the Legenda Aurea, a brief history of Mary’s birth and early childhood is recounted. Then there are private visions showed to Blessed Maria de Agreda. She tells how Mary was born from the womb of St. Anne in a marvelous flash of light. The mother of God was not born in the pang of childbirth as is common to women conceived in original sin.

• True devotion to Mary is not practiced

Like the great Marian saint, St. Louis de Montfort said, because we have not sufficiently known Mary, we do not sufficiently know Jesus. The last reason why most Catholics don’t really celebrate Mary’s birthday is because many don’t really have true devotion to her. We like the devotions where we can get something out of it, like the scapular (protection from eternal fire), the miraculous medal (miracles and favors), the rosary (peace in the world and in our families) or Our Lady of Lourdes (healing). The feast of the Nativity of Mary doesn’t hold any special promises as other feast days do.

Why should we celebrate Mary’s birthday?

There is only one reason why we should celebrate. It is the birthday of the mother of Jesus and our heavenly mother. Again, to neglect our own mother’s birthday is unthinkable.

In conception, Mary was created and filled with spiritual gifts and blessings but she was shrouded by the mystery of the womb. She lived only in the society of God and the angels. When She was born, she was introduced into the society of man. Born to the light of the world, her mission to be the universal mediatrix and co-redemptrix officially began, much in the same way the birth of the Messiah had.

In a world that has gone, at best, indifferent to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or, at worst, hateful, in the form of blasphemies and sacrilege, her faithful children should find it in their hearts to have more tenderness towards her.

We must keep in mind that true devotion to Mary is in imitation of the love and veneration Jesus has for His own mother. Without a doubt, Jesus celebrates her birthday even in Heaven. Biblical citation or no biblical citation, it should be easy to debate this point with any bible thumper. The argument is as simple as it comes and is based on faith and a lot of common sense.

Since He is the most perfect son, what person in the world could attribute anything less than loyal devotion and reverence to the most perfect of all mothers. And, that, we have a biblical citation to prove.

Here are 5 unique suggestions to celebrate Mary’s birthday

• Do an act of reparation

With so many of her birthdays neglected and so many of her children neglecting it, it should be obvious that we need to first apologize to her in a form of reparation. Imagine if we didn’t celebrate our own mother’s birthday, we would never hear the end of it.

• Celebrate with Feasting and Libations

Why not? Some Catholics have the false idea that if it’s religious then it can only be celebrated with prayer, fasting and penances. We are not ruling these out. Consider this, in the old testament, feasting and libations are mandated by God. (Lev 23:37)

Feasting means nothing more than having a special meal, ideally full of symbolisms, like having lamb or cooking with Rosemary or marjoram, spices names after Our lady.

Libations is the religious drinking of wine as an offering. Just as we celebrate important events, like a wedding, a graduation, or an important business transaction with a champagne bottle or wine; why shouldn’t we celebrate Our Lady’s birthday with libation? Obviously, everything must be done in virtue of moderation.

After all, Jesus became the patron saint of winemakers making really good wine at the wedding of Cana at the very request of Mary.

• Tell Marvelous Stories about Our Lady

Just like in most good birthday celebrations, stories and anecdotes about the person are recounted. Why not do the same for Our Lady’s celebration? Each family has anecdotes of miracles and favors granted them. Then, there are the other stories passed down by Catholic Tradition. If you need a primer, read The Glories of Mary by St. Alphonsus Ligouri. This book contains a treasury of marvelous miracles performed by the Blessed Virgin Mary.

• Light a candle as a family

Making the celebration public by lighting a candle as a family is a good way. It’s one thing to praise our own mothers in the privacy of our home but doing it in public is even more special. Why not for Our Lady? Getting together as many of your family to light a votive candle is a public act of devotion to Her.

• Do a pilgrimage to a local shrine

Finally, visit her statue in a local shrine. Many travel to celebrate our own mother’s birthday. Why not for Our Lady? Official shrines have special blessings attached to them. The prayers of so many pilgrims attract the attention of Our Lady, the angels and the saints in a special way.

These suggestions are not the only ideas you can do to celebrate Mary’s birthday. There are the common ones that are also good: rosary, novenas, fasting, almsgiving, etc. But, why not celebrate Our Lady’s birthday in style once in a while, especially, when so many have neglected it for so long?

Ancient Prayer In Honour of Our Lady's Nativity by St. Anselm

Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, O sacred Virgin; give me strength against thine enemies, and against the enemy of the whole human race. Give me strength humbly to pray to thee. Give me strength to praise thee in prayer with all my powers, through the merits of thy most sacred nativity, which for the entire Christian world was a birth of joy, the hope and solace of its life.

When thou wast born, O most holy Virgin, then was the world made light.

Happy is thy stock, holy thy root, and blessed thy fruit, for thou alone as a virgin, filled with the Holy Spirit, didst merit to conceive thy God, as a virgin to bear Thy God, as a virgin to bring Him forth, and after His birth to remain a virgin.

Have mercy therefore upon me a sinner, and give me aid, O Lady, so that just as thy nativity, glorious from the seed of Abraham, sprung from the tribe of Juda, illustrious from the stock of David, didst announce joy to the entire world, so may it fill me with true joy and cleanse me from every sin.

Pray for me, O Virgin most prudent, that the gladsome joys of thy most helpful nativity may put a cloak over all my sins.

O holy Mother of God, flowering as the lily, pray to thy sweet Son for me, a wretched sinner.